Animal Law CLE

Whether it is the Yorkshire terrier in the carrier on the airplane or the emotional support rat on the shopper’s shoulder in the grocery store, one encounters people insisting on and resisting about the use of animals to assist them with a variety of activities in the world. What are the allowable options in that regard? What does the law permit, what does the law prohibit, and what does the law simply not pay attention to at all when it comes to the service animal, the assistance animal, or the emotional support animal in a public setting. This seminar examines both the sense and the nonsense of not just the players involved but the rules that are imposed on those players – which can include not simply the animal owner but the merchant, bystander, government agent, and affected consumer as well. We do so by ferreting out the scope of regulations across jurisdictions, by specifying the questions that can and cannot be asked of certain participants, and by trying to glean what rationalizations lay behind protections and penalties in the use and abuse of dogs, cats, rabbits, horses and other animals in the service of people.

This course offers an in-depth look at how the concept of ownership is treated with regard to animals and their offspring and it provides participants with every key case citation as to ownership rules, animals as properties to be conveyed and transferred, and how value and damages theories affect our application of ownership laws to animal-relate disputes. The cliched proposition that animals are personal properties is simply the jumping off point to a host of more sophisticated analyses about owning such properties and the unique problems that are brought to light by the fact that as properties animals do odd things such as make decisions, independently transport themselves from place to place, and magically compound their value over time. We also consider how animals may be “specially valued” and at the same time keep in mind the realistic comparison of dead animals with dead humans in both applying and misapplying wrongful death laws and valuation schemes.

This course offers an in-depth survey of the current state of the major topics in animal law and provides participants with the key principles, rules, and regulations – as developed by common law and from statute – affecting animals. Styled as a cinematic presentation, the course examines animal-related laws via their philosophical, scientific, and practical underpinnings, and from a variety of differing perspectives, exploring how the courts have treated animals in the past and will likely treat them in the future, locally and nationally. From the foundational (How are animals defined? Do animals have rights? Why are animals properties?) to the pragmatic (What procedural obstacles might confront claims made on behalf of animals? What substantive constraints might prosecuting an animal abuse case entail?).

Telehealth has exploded in recent years due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, although it has been around for a number of years. Similarly, veterinary telehealth, or as we are calling it, TelePet, is currently growing at a rapid pace, however, many states are not aligned with each other regarding what services can be provided virtually and what needs to happen before TelePet services can be provided. During this webinar, we will move through the timeline of how TelePet first began, where the industry is now, and how much further we have to go. We will cover the law, the practice, and the money to help stakeholders understand all considerations that are at play when thinking about TelePet.

Although a majority of Americans love their pets as members of their family, advance planning for companion animals is a common estate planning oversight. In this course, Dr, Patricia “Patti” Wilhite McCartney, an estates and trusts lawyer, Board-Certified Naturopathic Doctor, and Animal Naturopathic Doctor, offers a primer for incorporating pets into existing estate plans or as stand-alone trusts and directives, and discusses how to avoid and overcome common drafting issues and obstacles.